Learning Kindness
Today is marked on the calendar as World Kindness Day, a fact that Jewish Treats celebrates annually because kindness, known in Hebrew as chesed, is one of the foundations of Jewish…
Take Two Tablets
Most artistic representations of the Ten Commandments present two rectangular tablets rounded off at the top. As pleasing to the eyes as this rounded design may be, tradition suggests…
Two Pillars of Five
Jewish law, and thus Jewish life, rests on two pillars, the mitzvot between a person and God and the mitzvot between one person and another. These two pillars of law are laid out in the…
Take Two Tablets
Most artistic representations of the Ten Commandments present two rectangular tablets rounded off at the top. As pleasing to the eyes as this rounded design may be, tradition suggests…
Go Wash Your Hands
Mothers always instruct their children to wash their hands before supper. After all, children play in unclean places, touch strange objects and suck their thumbs, so their hands…
The Thirteen Principles
The United States Supreme Court decides whether laws conform or do not conform to the U.S. Constitution. Similarly, the ancient sages decided and interpreted halacha, Jewish law, based on…
Art for Art’s Sake
If there were a Cliff Notes version of the Ten Commandments, Commandment #2 would simply read: “You shall have no other Gods before me.” But, in truth, the commandment itself is more…
Two Pillars of Five
Jewish law, and thus Jewish life, rests on two pillars, the mitzvot between a person and God and the mitzvot between one person and another. These two pillars of law are laid out in the…
A Look At The Law
There are three types of laws in the Torah...mishpatim, edot and chukim: Mishpatim are basic laws. In fact, mishpatim are generally translated as those laws which are necessary and…
Kee Teitzei 5764-2004
"The Torah's 'Secret' for Longevity" by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald As we have noted in our previous studies of parashat Kee Teitzei, this coming week's parasha contains more mitzvot that…